'JEG, Since Birch bark is silver, brown paint will just make the tower stand out.

Magmounts are not such a good idea--especially on a new car.  One time is all it takes for that magmount to come off while the car is moving, and you'll probably have marks and dings in your new cars finish.  And they don't have to actually come off--just move.  AND if they don't and they stay in one place for a while, you may end up with stains or discoloration of the paint!

Also, anything thicker than a sheet of writing paper between the magmount and the matal its holding onto risks serious degradation of the holding power of the magnet.  Magmounts were originally made for use when a vehicle was not moving--and that is still all most of them are good for.  You take way too many chances with any antenna longer or heavier than a 2 meter quarter wave whip on a magnet mount when the car is moving.

All you detractors go ahead and flame and swear that magmounts are OK for use at highway speeds.  I've heard it all before, and nothing anyone says is going to change my mind--just as it won't change the minds of those who have had damage done to their rides by magmounts that have come off and did damage to their cars while they were moving.

I'd love to have a fake palm tree antenna here in Michigan!  My neighbors would just have one more reason to avoid me.   

At the top of one of the ski runs at Winter Park in Colorado is a cell tower that looks like a pine tree. I skied that run many times before I realized it was fake. If you contacted some of the cell phone service providers they might tell where they got the tree.

Thanks for the information guys, I really appreciate it.  Putting an antenna on a plastic car is an iffy proposition at best, but I saw an article about someone doing it using 2" wide copper foil under the mount and running for some length on either side.  I thought I'd give that a try rather than using a glass mount.  With the defrost wires in the hatch glass, a glass mounted antenna would probably perform even more poorly.

Thanks again,
Chas.

I've searched and can't find any specs for the gap required for a trunk lid mount (NMO).  It's going on the hatch of a C-5 Corvette that has a 0.165" gap.  I'll have to use something like this so I can adjust the angle.  http://www.diamondantenna.net/k400.html

Does anyone know offhand the minimum required gap typical for these types of mounts?

Thanks,
Chas.

For me its 260 miles each way from Mt Morris Michigan to Dayton OH, I use my Wifes van (holds more people then my pickup and don't worry about rain for all our treasures we find) the van gets about 23 miles to the gallon so that's 22 gallons of liquid gold at 4$ a gallon is 88$ then there is the hotel that's 125$ a night for 3 nights 375$ so it looks like 500$ for me to walk in the place.